


Covert Affair

by Serenity_V



Series: An Acquired Taste [3]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Cute Spy-Keens, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-05-31 22:52:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6490519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenity_V/pseuds/Serenity_V
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s no such thing as “too deep” for Jacob Phelps. But, glancing from his watch to the phone mounted on the wall and realizing just how much he wants it to ring, Jacob finally admits to himself that he might have pushed the parameters of his mission just a bit too far. Which, of course, translates to being in way over his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Covert Affair

**Author's Note:**

> Let the record show that I do not condone any form or measure of infidelity. I also think it rather out of character for Liz. When I heard that line in the episode “Eli Matchett,” however, I immediately loved the idea of Jacob and Liz having a sort of spy-interaction thing going on in the early days of their relationship; it was just so cute and perfect, so this is me doing my best to justify it.

_What am I doing here?_ Jacob thought as he waited. _What are_ we _doing?_ The first time he’d looked twice at Liz had been when she’d essentially _poisoned herself_ to get rid of her cheating ex. Now, he’d somehow seduced her into cheating on Nik. She hadn’t intended for it to happen; what frightened Jacob was that neither had he. He looked down at his watch: Seven p.m. Right on cue, the phone rang, and he answered. She was coming.

He was actually rather impressed; Liz had been the one to devise their method of communication, and it was exactly the sort of thing he’d actually do if he needed to quietly keep in constant contact with someone and burners weren’t an option. He sometimes thought she’d make a great operative, but she had too much of a conscience for that. Jacob sighed as he waited, running a hand through his hair in agitation. The morality of their current situation wasn’t the cause of his unease – he’d done so much worse than this – but it bothered Liz. She’d sounded tense on the phone, and he knew she was reaching her limit; soon, she’d do the right thing and tell “Tom” to get lost. Jacob should want that; he and Liz – _Scott,_ he corrected himself, though it was far too late for that – should never have become a “we” to begin with. He should never have gotten close, and he _definitely_ shouldn’t have let _her_ so close to _him._ That would all be moot soon, anyway, though. Liz would probably never even want to see him again after they’d let things spiral so far out of control, and frankly, that’s what Jacob should be hoping for. L- _Scott_ would keep her distance, and he’d resume the removed “friend of a friend” cover that had been his original mission. Really, that was the best case scenario, a way to salvage the job he’d somehow managed to so thoroughly screw up. So, why did the prospect make him feel so dismal?

“Hey,” a voice, soft and hesitant, interrupted his brooding.

“Hey,” he answered, lips curving into a smile before he’d even thought about making the expression a conscious decision. Liz was going to do whatever she was going to do. He would just enjoy being close to her while he could and deal with it all when he had to.

“You okay?” she asked, watching him in concern as she sat. “You looked a little down there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Well, I am now, anyway.” And, she really shouldn’t have the power to make that happen. No one should. At the moment, though, Jacob couldn’t bring himself to care.

His response didn’t seem to reassure her. She hesitated, confused and guilty, before saying, “Tom…I don’t get it. You’re a good guy. I never would have thought…How are you okay with all this? I mean, what are we even _doing?”_

Jacob had expected the question to crop up eventually. Tom Keen wasn’t the sort of man who’d seduce a woman into cheating on her boyfriend. Then again, that wasn’t really what he’d done. It had all just sort of happened, and he’d somehow been caught up in it and pulled along for the ride. How had that happened? It was the sort of thing that happened to normal people, like Tom Keen. Jacob had never experienced anything like it. With a start, he found himself telling her the unadulterated truth. It’s not like he lied to her all the time or anything; most of what he told her was the truth, he’d just never shared anything of this magnitude before. It was, perhaps, the most significant thing he’d ever had in common with his cover.

“I think neither of us really thought this through. I guess…I guess I’m okay with it because I don’t expect it to ever actually go anywhere. I just want to be close to you for as long as I can before you run off and marry your doctor,” he said with a pained smile.

Apparently, he couldn’t say anything right tonight. If anything, Liz looked even more upset. She took a moment to respond, and when she did, he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly.

“What if…” She spoke softly. “What if I don’t want to marry him?”

Jacob froze, pretty sure his heart had just skipped a beat. He should keep his cover. He should fix the mess he’d made of this job. _I’m sorry,_ he should say, _I never should have come between you like this. I care about you Liz, but I think we need to stop seeing each other._

“You need to do what’s best for you, Liz,” he said. “You need to do what will make you happy. But…Liz, if there’s even the smallest chance- I would _love_ a shot with you.”

What was he _doing?_ He was an _idiot._ He knew he was more competent than this, but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to act rationally where Liz was concerned. There was no way this would end well, he knew that, but…Did it really have to end? His mission was to protect Liz; that sounded rather long-term to him.

“What? Tom, how could you even trust me after…I mean, you’re sitting here watching me cheat on my boyfriend, how can you believe I wouldn’t do the same to you? You must think I’m such a _hypocrite_ after Ronnie…”

_“Hey._ Liz, _listen_ to me. First off, you are _nothing_ like Ronnie. This? This isn’t you. I mean, you’re so torn up about it! I _know_ you, Liz, and I know this isn’t like you. You didn’t mean for it to happen any more than I did. You’re only here because we got too close before you’d decided to really commit yourself to Nik. You just don’t know what you want right now, and I bear some of the blame for confusing you. I should never have put you in this position.” That, at least, was one hundred percent true. He should never have put _either_ of them in this position, but here they were, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

Liz nodded, mustering a small smile. “We’ll…see what happens,” she managed.

* * *

A few days later, Jacob’s cellphone rang, _Liz_ written across the screen. He grinned; this was it! No more cloak and dagger, waiting for the other shoe to drop – just him and Liz, it was really happening! He couldn’t answer fast enough.

“Hey.”

“Tom?”

Jacob froze. She was crying.

“Liz? Babe, what’s wrong?”

“He _proposed,”_ she sobbed.

Jacob’s heart stopped. _No,_ he thought, _There’s no way she said yes. Listen to her, she’s_ devastated; _there’s no way she’d agree to marry him if it hurt her this much,_ he argued. He tried to convince himself that was the only reason he hoped she’d refused. He wasn’t entirely successful, but at least he could breathe again.

“What happened? Are you going to be okay?”

Liz made a sound that could have been a laugh and choked out, “Honestly? I don’t know. Yeah, I guess I will be. I’ll have to be. I just…I never meant to hurt him. I didn’t expect him to _propose!_ And then, when I couldn’t say yes, I realized I’d _never_ be able to, and I had to break up with him right after _that,_ and- Oh, Tom, he was _devastated!”_

_Forget about him! I’m worried about_ you. But, that was all Jacob; Tom would never be so insensitive.

“Where are you now?” he asked.

“Home.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Too late, I’m already on my way.”

“Okay. Thank you.” They ended the call.

It took him about fifteen minutes to reach Liz’s apartment. When he did, her tears had long since dried, but she still seemed upset. She smiled upon seeing him, though, and he exulted in her seeming to find his presence comforting.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“So, I hear you’re a free woman now.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“I’ve kind of been waiting for that, so at the risk of sounding like an insensitive jerk, do you want to go out with me?”

“Not afraid of being a rebound?”

Jacob smirked. “You haven’t scared me off yet,” he said softly, startling a small laugh out of her.

“Alright then. I’ll go out with you, and we’ll see how long it takes.”

“Good. Awesome. Just remind me, if I ever think about proposing, to run it by you ‘hypothetically’ first. I’d rather avoid any unpleasant surprises.” It was a risk, joking about it so soon, but it paid off, sending them both convulsing with laughter, and if Liz’s held an edge of hysteria, well, Jacob would certainly not be the one to point it out.

Jacob knew that pursuing a relationship with Liz was by far the stupidest decision he had ever made. He had never been happier.


End file.
